I am not a big fan of conspiracy theories, but I heard one the other day that made me wonder. So, I thought I would share it here.
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A realtor who I have worked with and does a lot of REOs told me that she had been told by a good friend at the lender she works with that the reason the prices are being set so high at auction is because the major lenders have gotten together and decided it would be in their best interest to hold a lot of these properties for a few years until the market improved. Essentially, becoming landlords and renting the houses until such time they can sell them for a better price.
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From what I can see, the lenders and trustees are lousy property managers. They let the houses become physically distressed, do very little to clean up the properties and make them presentable for sale. In essence, they seem like the worst corporate absentee owners imaginable. Anyone else hear anything like this?

yes, have heard similar rumors…
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have been keeping my eye on 3 properties in my?neighborhood that countrywide has foreclosed on and has done zero to fix/repair/market…
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the houses are??just sitting vacant (dead landscaping)?for 8+ months without?being listed for sale…
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perhaps they’ll fix them up and put on the market next year…

The reality is that the lenders have been selling more homes then they’ve been taking back since September, so the so called shadow inventory has been dwindling. I think it is a non-issue at this point, and certainly not a conspiracy.
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That said I do think lenders are holding off foreclosing - but primarily due to political pressure rather than some desire to be landlords.

Is there a way to find out the specific inventory that each bank is holding in a particular market?? It appears that more and more homes are going back to the bank.? I want to know their inventory and understand the velocity at which they are working through their holdings.
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We are happy subscribers to foreclosureradar.com and am fans of your service.? When are you going to offer similar services in other states?
Appreciate any insight.
Thank you.

Yes it is possible, but for now its a manual effort. We do plan to tackle it at some point, but we know anecdotally at least that they have been selling more properties then they have taken back since September. We estimate their holding peaked around 130k homes in CA in September and are now likely around 80k. ? Expect an expansion announcement from us soon.

Looking forward to your expansion announcement.
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What is the best way to manually count up inventory?? I am specifically interested in San Diego county and want to know what the banks are holding onto vs. working through?
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thank you.

If you have access to the MLS the best way would be to use our software to export all the Sold to Bank records (for the time period of your choosing, but everything since Jan 07 would be ideal), then match that list to MLS sales records. If the sale date in the MLS is great than the sale date on the foreclosure steps, then it has been resold and is no longer in bank inventory. Also if it is active or pending in the MLS, then it doesn’t really count as “shadow inventory” which by definition is only those bank owned properties which are not yet listed or sold.

Yes. Two ways to address. You can request that your limit be raised by emailing support@foreclosureradar.com. Alternatively you can break up your search into say 3 month blocks, by setting current sale date under foreclosure details .